Share

Mapping the Domestic US Food System: The Meat and Fruit and Vegetables Supply Chains

Abstract

The location of firms within supply chains may profoundly affect
the long-term efficiency, vulnerability and sustainability of the US
food system. As alternative food systems emerge to compete with
traditional ones, understanding the configuration of establishments
along existing food supply chains is important for assessing their
strengths and weaknesses, as well as for determining potential
complementarities. We use descriptive and correlation analysis to
examine geographic locations of establishments in the meat and fruit
& vegetables (F&V) supply chains at the county-level. Our
results show dissimilarities in the supply chains considered; for
example, while cattle, hog and poultry farms are each found in nearly
all continental US counties (>95%) and vegetable operations in the
open are present in 90% of counties, citrus operations exist in only 7%
of all counties, as they are limited by climatic factors. Asymmetries
along the chains include that poultry operations are found in nearly all
(98%) counties whereas poultry processors are limited to only 11% of
counties. We also find different levels of co-location among
establishments making up supply chains: early-stage producers are
attracted to farm sites (supply) while retailers are drawn to population
centers (demand). For example, cattle and hog (but not poultry)
production tend to occur farther away from population centers
(r2<0.06) while non-citrus fruit production is less deterred by
nearby populations (r2=0.24).

Focusing on the consumer-end
of the food system, we find that while supermarkets and grocery stores
are present in 98% of all counties, warehouse clubs and supercenters
experienced explosive growth in geographic expansion, from 26.7 to
52.7% of all counties, with the number of stores increasing from 1,748
to 4,435 establishments. However, the correlation between supercenters
and populations (0.76) is lower than that with supermarkets (0.89)
suggesting that, as the former store type starts to serve a larger
population, shopping may involve greater transportation costs. In
general, our results reveal how different establishment types that make
up two key supply chains in the US food system attract or repel one
another, where they tend to locate along the producer-consumer
continuum, and how this is changing over time. This information can be
used by policymakers and community leaders to assess viable
configurations of local and regional food systems, as well as the limits
they face to expanding such systems given the current geographically
localized structure of food supply chains.